September is Almost Here

Can you believe that September is already upon us? I guess you can if you have kids returning to school, though. Right?

Keep the Blade Sharp

You may not be cutting your grass much now because it’s pretty dry. However, if you water your grass then you need to be sure to keep the lawn mower blade sharp. It’s much easier on the grass if you do…dull blades tear the grass, sharp ones cut it. By the way, you don’t need to water until you can walk on the grass and see your footsteps when you look back.

Powdery Mildew

If you have white powdery-looking stuff on the leaves of the crape myrtles or other bushes/trees, it’s called powdery-mildew. You can treat it with a good systemic fungicide or Neem oil. Be sure to follow the directions on the label…more is not necessarily better. You’ll probably have to treat the trees/bushes 3-4 times to get rid of the mildew. Green Light Company says that their Neem Concentrate will get rid of it in 24 hours. Donno.

If you see black spots on the roses or other plants, it’s usually black-spot fungus and there isn’t much you can do for the leaves that already have it. Just pull them off and throw them in the trash. If you want to treat for it, again, use a systemic fungicide. It won’t cure the leaves that already have it, but it can help stop the spread. The disease is spread usually by drops of water hitting the black spot and releasing the spores to go wherever the wind blows.

Gardening Classes

The next GVST Gardening Essentials class will be Monday, September 17, in the Garden Center at the Botanical Garden, 555 Funston, in San Antonio.

The Fall, 2012, gardening classes that I’ll be teaching are now listed on my website (www.thehillcountrygardener.com) and you can sign up for classes there, too, if you like.

Those sponsored by the Northeast ISD and held on Thursday evening at the Community Learning Center on Tesoro Blvd. in San Antonio from 6:30-8:30 pm and are listed at www.communityed.neisd.net. The classes for O’Connor High School are from Northside ISD and can be found at www.nisd.net/ace. They’re held on Tuesday evenings from 6:30 – 8:30 pm. We also have classes scheduled in Kerrville at the Dietert Senior Center on Wednesday afternoons from 1:30 – 3:30 pm. The sponsor is www.clubed.net.

C’mon down and have a good time with us.

Catching Up
I’ve been out in the hot sun the last few days trying to get my fall gardening chores finished and generally get caught up with my gardening that’s been so neglected these past few months. It sure is hot out there—I don’t care if it is getting cooler, 90+F is still hot. Sweating like a pig; drinking lots of Gatorade to try to offset the body fluid losses. But in my case, that’s as good as it gets. I’m just lucky to be able to do it at all, I guess.

Finally got my tomatoes in – Celebrity this time. Also planted some Armenian cucumbers—the kind that supposedly get 18” long. Donno about that. Just have to wait and see I guess.

The rest of the beds are still full of weeds and grass. I hope to get to that sometime soon, but don’t know for sure when that will be. Any volunteers?

New Bed?

If you’re thinking about putting in a new bed or two this fall, and if the bed is going to be irregularly-shaped, use the garden hose to lay it out so that you can see about how it will look and how big it will be. Once you make your decision, use some spray paint to outline the bed. Kill out the grass and anything else in the bed.
Add 2-4 inches of compost and about 2 pounds of slow-release lawn fertilizer to each 100 square feet and till it again. Water it real good and let it set for a couple of weeks if you can wait that long. If not, go ahead and plant the new bed.

Got Worms?

If you have leaf rollers in the cannas (they roll up the leaves and eat a hole through them so that you get a row of holes when the leaf unfolds) or worms on the mountain laurel (you see the webs and chewed-up leaves before you see the worms usually,) or webworms in the pecan trees, use Bt or Spinosad to control them.

Send your comments and/or questions to gardener@gvtc.com or see the website at www.thehillcountrygardener.com.